Author: Ren Kayashima

Rating: T+

Disclaimer: Alas my top secret mission to steal the rights to Criminal Minds failed. At the last minute my repel line broke and I was arrested for trespassing on ABC grounds. If you would like to help me with bail money…

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Chapter Four:

December 25, 2011

Come Christmas morning, the Rossi mansion was about as full as it could get. Spare bedrooms were at max capacity, the office had been turned into another room. The house had never once been occupied to the extent that it was at that very moment, and Dave just wanted some time alone. He wanted his home back.

As he quietly made his way towards Rori's bedroom, he kept his large wrapped gift held up just above the floor in one hand and another gift in the other hand. They weren't the most grand of gifts, but he knew they would hold a bit of sentimental value.

Pushing the door to Rori's bedroom open, he crept in, careful not to wake Rori up. He placed the two gifts against the wall. Hearing a groan behind him, Dave peeked over his shoulder to see Rori turning over on her side. He smiled to himself, happy to see that she was blinking and obviously awake. "Sorry I woke you."

Rori buried her face in her pillow. "Don't be," she muttered. "I had this really ominous dream." She lifted her head up, and reached for her glasses. She sat up as she pushed the purple rims up to the bridge of her nose. She looked ahead towards the small bit of light that peeked through the blinds on her window. "I was looking for someone, and every time I thought I had succeeded, they disappeared. Poof!" Rori looked to her dad for an answer. "What do you think it means?"

"It's probably the same reason I dream about a rabbit riding a seahorse," Dave answered, walking over to the edge of Rori's bed. He sat down and smiled. "Merry Christmas, Rori."

Rori giggled at the mental image her father had put in her head. "Merry Christmas, Dad," she said. She pulled her phone off her nightstand and checked for any notifications. She dropped her phone in front of her before looking at the two sleeping dogs that took up the other half of the bed.

"Can you go get Kyle for me?" Dave asked. "I have something for the two of you, but I didn't want to give them in front of the rest of the family."

Rori looked over at the wrapped gifts before nodding. Slipping out from under the covers, she quickly disappeared out into the hallway.

Rori came back a few minutes later, quietly coaxing a grumbling Kyle into her room. Dragging her brother to the bed, Rori grinned excitedly.

Dave watched as he waited for both college students to sit on the bed before moving back to the wall. He brought over the two gifts and held the green one out to Kyle and the red one to Rori. "I thought that these could be put in your own homes when you get one. I know that you won't stay here forever, and it's never too early to have things you'll bring with you."

"Gifts for the future," Rori whispered taking the gift tenderly. "Cool!" Tearing at the paper, she grinned when she saw a frame. She looked up at her dad wide-eyed when she saw what the frame was around.

It was a photoshopped summation of her life in the form of a collage. Photos of Rori as a small child, preteen, teen, and now college student had been put together in sepia tones. She looked to Kyle to see that he also had a collage of photos as a gift.

Dave pointed to Rori's collage. "I had to call your Aunt Kate and Giles for your photos, Rori," he said. He turned to Kyle. "I hope you don't mind me looking through your things in the attic. I needed photos to get Kenta to make both of these.

"Kenta made these?" Rori asked in surprise. She knew of course that her boyfriend was a Photoshop wizard, but she had been unaware that her dad knew about it.

Kyle swallowed as he spotted a photo of his parents hugging a little boy close, and another of a pregnant Christine Morre, a photo he had only seen once when Giles showed it to him. He looked up at Dave. "Thank you," he said.

"There are some photos of Rori and I in there," Dave said, pointing out a couple. "But I know what a lot of your life was with the parents who raised you. I asked Kenta to try and get as much in without making it look too chaotic."

"It's perfect," Kyle stated. He didn't normally get emotional over gifts, but he could see the thought that went into the project. "I'm going to have to thank Kenta, too."

Rori lifted hers up a little higher to study all the photos. All of her happy memories had been jammed together in one art piece. She studied some of the photos that had her mom in them, but she couldn't just focus on one photo. There were so many to look at, and every time she thought that she had seen them all, another seemed to pop up out of the blue.

Placing the framed artwork gently against her nightstand, Rori stood up. Within a millisecond, she had pounced on her father, hugging him tightly. "This is the greatest, Dad. Thank you. Thank you so much."

Dave smiled as he wrapped his arms around Rori. He had hoped that this would be the response he would get: Stunned appreciation. He wasn't one to be competitive, but he was fairly certain that these gifts had earned the top gift for the season.

Kyle continued to stare at the collage as his mind jumped from one complex emotion to the next. He looked at Dave and gave him a nod to acknowledge the deep appreciation for the gift.

Dave took a deep breath and smiled at the two college student. "I suggest you get ready before everyone wakes up. The bathrooms won't stay open long."

Rori grinned, looking to the closed door next to her walk-in closet. "I'll just use my bathroom. Like I always do." She had gone through this before when her grandparents had come to visit a few times.

Kyle groaned. The past two days he had been the last one in the bathroom all the time. He never had hot water, the towel racks were full, and there was always the lingering scent of something floral, which he suspected came from Dave's sister Bella. "Can I borrow your bathroom?" he asked. "Your cousins always bombard the guest bath like a well-organized line of lemmings."

Rori giggled again and nodded as her face took on a more serious demeanor. "Your body spray doesn't step one foot in my bathroom. Do you understand?" she asked darkly. She couldn't stand to have her nose assaulted by male body spray in her own bathroom. "I think your body wash is enough."

Kyle nodded appreciatively. He grabbed his collage and darted out of the room to grab a towel and his clothes. He wasn't about to waste time when Rori had just granted him access to the promise land of family free bathroom space.

Rori crawled back under her covers to keep warm, leaving Dave to show himself out. Rori turned over to hug Zen as the dog turned over on its back. "Good dog," she muttered.

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"Uncle Dave," Justin called across the family room. He held a box slightly above his head. He had to keep blowing his shaggy bangs out of his eyes as he bobbed from one foot to the next. "I didn't a chance to tell you how chill your team is. They were great at the party."

The family room was filled with the entire Rossi family with most people either standing or sitting on the floor as they opened gifts, praised Mama Rossi's breakfast, and socialized.

Dave smiled from his recliner. "They're a group of amazing profilers and even greater friends." Dave answered handing Jessica a wrapped cube.

"Especially that Reid dude," Michael laughed, tearing at a bow atop a gold wrapped box. "He's quite the illusionist. I kept trying to figure out how he did that trick with the pen and paper." He kissed his mother, Amy, on the cheek when he saw a brand new drawing tablet for his art animation. "This is perfect, Mom."

"And you won't ever learn," Rori stated, dropping to the ground quickly as she sat next to Luke who was admiring a boxed set of the Game of Thrones series. "Dr. Reid guards his secrets well, and very few are privy to him. I've known him a little over a year now and all I can do is make a quarter disappear."

Kyle leaned forward from his spot in front of the lit fireplace so that he could whisper in Rori's ear. "This family is kind of nuts," he said, hiding a laugh. "I haven't had this much fun for a long time, and certainly not with a family this big."

Rori turned and grinned. She reached back to squeeze Kyle's hand. "Can you take me to meet them sometime? Your parents? We talk about him all the time, but you've never taken me to their grave."

Kyle paused for a moment before nodded with a serene smile. "Yeah, we can do that, then we'll go see Christine," he answered. He was actually please with the idea of taking Rori to his parent's gravesite. He had been meaning to take some flowers, but he hadn't gotten around to it.

"Merry Christmas, Kyle Bishop," Rori said. She handed Kyle a long circular tube. She had gotten him a Thor movie poster. She had to search various sources over the internet, but she ended up with a mint copy for Kyle's room. Comic books were a thing with him, and the movies always seemed to make him happy.

"Merry Christmas Rori Morre-Rossi," Kyle nodded, handing over his own gift. He had decided on giving her an old book he had found for sale at Giles. Rori's collection of old Agatha Christie editions was small, but he knew she would appreciate the latest addition.

Unnoticed to the siblings, Dave had seen the entire conversation. He smiled to himself as he thought about how far the sibling had come from last spring. It reminded him of the close relationship he had with his own siblings, and to see it reflected in Kyle and Rori made the senior agent feel like his life had come full circle.

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Author's Note: So it's by no means a long chapter. No more Christmas time after this. It's time to jump into the next semester and see what adventure Rori and the gang can find. I guess I just have to decide when to initiate all that fun stuff. And think about it. We have Rori and Kyle's birthday at the end of February (because, you know they share a birthday by some sort of freaky chance).

Quick Note: The nomination process for the Third Annual Profiler's Choice Awards are going on until the fifteenth of October. This is an awards show to honor your favorite Criminal Minds fanfics and the authors who write them. You can find the nomination ballot on the Chit Chat on Author's Corner forum here on the site. Check it out! Show your favorite stories some love by nominating them for one of the 50 awards available.

Don't forget to leave me a review! Catch ya' on the flip side my homies.

Ren